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The California Supreme Court ruled in San Francisco Monday that the public has the right to know the names and salaries of state and local government employees, including most police officers.
The panel said disclosure is required by the California Public Records Act, which was passed by the Legislature in 1968 and made part of the state constitution by a voter initiative in 2004.
The court ruled in a lawsuit in which the Contra Costa Times sought to force the city of Oakland in 2004 to reveal the names and salaries of city workers who earned $100,000 or more, including workers who reached that amount through overtime pay.
The city didn’t appeal after an Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the newspaper. But two unions, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Local 21, and the Oakland Police Officers Association, pursued an appeal.
The high court, rejecting those appeals, said open records are justified “in light of the strong public policy supporting transparency in government.” It said the public interest in revealing the information outweighed privacy interests of government employees.
Chief Justice Ronald George wrote that the records are “information regarding an aspect of government operations, the disclosure of which contributes to the public’s understanding and oversight of those operations by allowing interested parties to monitor the expenditure of public funds.”
The court said, however, that a limited exception could be made in cases of individual police officers such as undercover officers who need to remain anonymous or could be endangered.
All seven members of the court agreed that the disclosure rule applies to all government employees other than police officers.
Five agreed that the rule extends to most police officers as well while two justices, Marvin Baxter and Ming Chin, said they believe the confidentiality of police officer records is protected by a separate state law.
In a related ruling, the court said by a 4-3 vote that the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training must disclose the names and hiring and termination dates of law enforcement officers in its database.
That decision was made in a lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles Times. Chin and Baxter dissented and Justice Joyce Kennard said that only officer names should be released.
